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Bust portrait of a boy in Van Dyck dress

Maker

(artist)
1748-1837

Title

Date of Production

1776

Medium

pen and brown ink on laid paper, with brown ink framing lines, laid down on a historic mount

Dimensions

Height: 19.8 cm
Width: 15.3 cm

Accession Number

D.1952.RW.1999

Mode of Acquisition

Robert Clermont Witt, bequest, 1952

Credit

The Courtauld, London (Samuel Courtauld Trust)

Copyright

Work in the public domain

Location

Not currently on display

Keywords

Label Text

This informal study of a young boy in seventeenth-century dress dates from early in the career of Wille, an artist who, like his master, Greuze, is primarily known for his genre scenes. The sitter may have been a family member who served as a ready model. However, the fact that Wille signed and dated the portrait suggests that he considered it a finished work, possibly intended for sale or for reproduction as a print, rather than a private exercise in capturing expression and costume.

Provenance

John Rushout, Earl of Northwick (1770-1859); his estate sale, Sotheby's (London), 1-4 November 1920, lot 279; Jacques Arnal; his sales, Sotheby's (London), 24 February 1925, lot 149a; purchased there by Sir Robert Witt, London (1872-1952); Witt Bequest 1952

Exhibition History

Special Display - French Portraits, The Courtauld Gallery, London, 14/06/2013-02/09/2013

France in the eighteenth century, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 06/01/1968-03/03/1968

Old Masters from the Witt Collection, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 01/01/1943-01/05/1943

Inscriptions

Watermark: Watermark: Mount (historic), Verso: centre: appears to be text, but indistinct in raking light and sheet is too thick to see with transmitted light.

Inscription: Recto: right centre edge, brown ink, signed and dated by the artist: “P.A Wille filius / 1776. //”. Mount (historic), Verso: lower right corner, graphite: “8”.

Collector's mark: none.

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